Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5

Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 has arrived in a module small enough to fit under a coin. Alongside the familiar 2.4 GHz band, you get 5 GHz - cleaner spectrum, higher throughput, and far less contention from every other device in the building.

That matters most where 2.4 GHz has quietly become the bottleneck. Smart-home hubs, neighbouring routers, Bluetooth peripherals and microwaves all crowd the same frequencies, and a sensor node that drops packets at 3 AM is the hardest kind of fault to find. Moving to 5 GHz sidesteps the congestion, while 2.4 GHz stays available for range and legacy compatibility.

Connectivity goes well beyond Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 5 (LE) and an IEEE 802.15.4 radio bring Thread and Zigbee into reach, with Matter, HomeKit and MQTT all supported. The board keeps the classic 21 x 17.8mm XIAO footprint, so existing expansion boards and add-ons drop straight on, and it programs from Arduino IDE, PlatformIO or ESP-IDF - or runs ESPHome if you would rather point it at Home Assistant and skip writing firmware altogether.

Features

• Reach 5 GHz networks for the first time in the XIAO family - dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) delivers cleaner spectrum and higher throughput exactly where 2.4 GHz is congested
• Join Thread, Zigbee and Matter networks natively via the onboard IEEE 802.15.4 radio, alongside Bluetooth 5 (LE)
• Run protocol stacks and application code together without running out of room - 8MB Flash and 8MB PSRAM back a 240 MHz RISC-V core and 384KB of on-chip SRAM
• Deploy battery-powered nodes that last: integrated lithium charge management and a typical 15 µA deep-sleep current on battery
• Protect fielded firmware with Secure Boot, flash encryption and hardware AES, SHA and HMAC accelerators
• Keep your existing hardware - the 21 x 17.8mm footprint and pinout match the rest of the XIAO range, so expansion boards, ePaper drivers and Grove bases all still fit
• Move from prototype to production on the same module, thanks to a castellated surface-mount design with standardised stamp holes for reflow onto your own carrier board
• Swap in a better antenna when range demands it, using the onboard U.FL connector

Specifications

Resources

• Getting Started with XIAO ESP32-C5
• Zigbee Quick Start (Arduino)
• Connecting to Home Assistant with ESPHome
• Product Datasheet (PDF)

What's Included

• 1x XIAO ESP32-C5 module (headers not soldered)
• 1x FPC antenna
• 2x pin header strip